We're gonna get started. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. The chambers are buzzing here. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, we'll start with a territorial acknowledgement. I would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather, land on which we are broadcasting from today is a land traditionally cared for by the Hudnon, Anesnab and Chenotan people. We also acknowledge the enduring presence and deep traditional knowledge and philosophies of the indigenous people with whom we share this land today. And just to add a bit to that, I'd also like to add that we recognize the the enduring presence, rights, and contributions of First Nations people in our region and our shared responsibility to advance respectful relationships that are grounded in truth, respect, and reconciliation. Land acknowledgements are not only about where we gather, but it's also about how we choose to govern. And that includes we govern with respect for indigenous rights, with honesty about the history and on and the ongoing impacts of colonization and with a commitment to building relationships rooted in listening, accountability and in action. Um certainly I recognize and I think all of council and staff recognize that reconciliation is sustained through connection and trust. Connection and trust are built over time through dialogue and relationship building and are an important part of our shared reconciliation journey. And I'm pleased to just share that um Waterlue started uh on the on the meeting and uh relationship building part. We started meeting with um Six Nations elected chief Sher Lynn Hill a couple of years ago um and with members of her council and we continue to meet and I was pleased to host Chief Hill Counselor Dr. Greg Frasier and councelor Dean Hill approximately a week ago to again continue to learn and to build our relationship and uh and understanding. So a moment of reflection at the beginning of this council meeting we paused to think about the needs of our community. May we show wisdom and compassion in all our decisions. Council, are there any disclosure of precinary interests in the general nature thereof? Seeing none, um, approval of the minutes moved by councelor Wright, seconded by councelor Hanmer. All in favor? That is carried. So that brings us to presentations and delegations. And we are very pleased to welcome uh Liz Brown who's the director of communications and strategic initiatives with with Wilfford Laurier University and I believe Matt Grills who's the director of government and community relations with the university uh with Wilfrid Laurier University. Matt's also we're pleased to have him as one of our members on the city's um economic development committee. So thank you for your your work on that. And then of course we're also really pleased to have uh uh Laurier's president Deb Mlache with us today as well. And um yeah we're we're really interested in the in the presentation around the the impact. We know that Laurier has been a longstanding key anchor institution in our community. A number of us are grads. Go Hawks. Um councelor Wright or sorry councelor Roach, Councelor Vasic, Councelor Bodley and myself. So that's like half of us. Um, so that's that's been an impact. But, uh, yeah, we welcome you today. Um, and and look forward to the presentation. So, I'll turn it over to you, Liz. >> Thank you, Mayor McCabe. Okay. So, um, it's really nice to hear there's so many alum on the city council. Um so uh last year we undertook a social and economic impact report with uh party or a third party uh firm called higher education strategy associates and we did that for a few reasons. So number one we really wanted to um quantify Laurier's contribution to local and provincial economies. Um and this the calculations you'll see uh it captures things uh you know the economic activity through job creation spending innovation and entrepreneurship and um also the economic activity generated by our students and their spending they bring to the region. Um we also wanted to demonstrate the return on public investment. So we are the stewards of public dollars and we wanted to show how an investment in Laurier uh you know provides significant benefit for the communities we serve. Um it also helps us strengthen our institutional narrative and part of that was the uh alumni survey uh and you can see what our alumni are doing and their successes and this helped support our community and government relations. So the first part was the economic impact re assessment and um the firm worked with our institutional research department to better understand the economic impact and so based on their calculations uh they uh have come up with that Laurier has a $3.8 8 billion total economic impact in Ontario and that was for 2324 and that calculation included budget footprint which is spending on you know infrastructure operations salaries um the international and out of student or out of province student spending um visitor spending for uh people who come to the region and spend their money and then a graduate permanent uh premium and earnings. So university graduates earn more on average than a high school graduate. So we broke this out by we we're a multi-ampus institution. So within Waterlue um that calculation is 2.74 billion the graduate premium and earnings. So that's the premium on the alumni who graduated from the Waterlue campus. Um and then the local economic impact annually is $517 million. We also bring a number of visitors to Waterlue for um many different things. So, convocation, symposia, sporting events. And I just wanted to highlight that the average daily spend per visitor is $120 per day. So, then the alumni survey. So, last January, uh we put this survey out to our email list. We have about over 60,000 uh active email addresses for our alumni and we promoted it on social media and we received over 4,400 responses which is very good response rate. So we're fairly confident in the validity and reliability of this data. Um and this was our winner with to incentivize responses. This is just our our winner who um won the the prize for the draw. Um just before we get into um some of the data, I wanted to talk about the methodology a little bit. So 66% of our alumni response respondents were under 40. Um and that was for a few reasons. So it's we have more um reliable contact information for younger alums. So you know if you're a fresh graduate, we'll have an active email on file. Um and then you you can also see at the end um we had a number of uh alum who are also 65 and above. So in some areas of the report we did limit the analysis to alumni who are 25 and older um because alumni under 25 you know have not reached some of those key milestones. Uh again just respondents by campus to show how it shakes out. uh it it was very much aligned with the what we know our alumni so approximately 81% of our alumni have graduated from the waterlue campus. Okay. So one of the things we wanted to understand is how many people Laurier is attracting and retaining to our communities uh because we know that is really important for southwestern Ontario. We want to bring people here. We want them to start businesses here, start their lives here. Um and so we asked a question who are resident of people who alumni who are residents of southwestern Ontario how likely they would be to live in the region if they had not attended Laurier and more more than onethird of those surveyed said that they would be very unlikely or unlikely to live in KW if not for attending Laurier. And so if you look at the next slide, uh, Hessa estimates then that 10,000 alumni may live in southwestern Ontario just because Laurier exists. So they were they came here and they stayed. And that's uh 3% of the total KW population may be students who moved here from other regions and stayed after they finished their studies because they got jobs, they met someone. Um, we also looked at access. So, uh, access students refer to those alumni who say they would be have been unlikely to obtain a university degree if Laurier had not been an option. And that's for a variety of reasons. So, it might be that it was the local option and they couldn't move afford to move away from home or maybe Laurier offered them a scholarship and no other university did. Um so based on the survey results we believe that about 9,000 alumni have a university degree because Laurier exists. Um half of those probably would have attended college based on the responses. Um but this is important because what we see in census data is that uh people with post-secary education just have better social and economic outcomes. They have longer life expectancy. uh they're more civically engaged. Uh they make uh they you know they have higher incomes over over a number of years. Uh we also uh found that Laurier alum have very good career outcomes. So 94% of them uh responded that they are working um and 3600 of our alumni disclosed their income. And the median income range is very much aligned with what we see again in census data between 70 to 90,000 for university graduates and that's across all the age groups. Uh we also asked uh alum about their work integrated learning. So this is things like co-op, community workplace partnerships, um experiential learning opportunities. Um, so almost half of them said they were offered those opportunities at Laurier. And if you actually look at the younger alum, it's much higher. It's over 75% who have received those opportunities. Um, we think, you know, the the older alum co-op wasn't as much a thing like in the in the 80s and 90s. Um but 74% chose to participate in that and then more than half strongly agreed it was helpful in shaping their career and then 31% more agreed. So that's 86% thought it was very helpful in shaping their career. Um, another interesting thing we found is that a third of our alumni over 25 reported starting a business at some point in their lives and that would equal to 27,500 active businesses started by alumni across Canada. 90% of them are expected to operate in Ontario. uh and potentially 305,000 jobs across Canada have been created by entrepreneurial alumni and another 100,000 jobs created through charity founders who are alum and then uh a lot of alumni attribute their entrepreneurial success to actually attending Laurier and there's just two really quickly here um Jenny Birds some of You may be aware of the lifestyle and jewelry brand um worn by Michelle Obama for example. Uh she has a office in Toronto employs 60 people and they they're also opening an office in New York City. Um and they're also socially minded businesses. So Cole Jones is another one um they that he does an e-commerce platform for farmers to uh try to improve supply chains. So you can get local produce to buyers. Uh and this is where uh alumni entrepreneurs report employing people and more than 80% of the jobs created by Laurier alumni have been created in Ontario. And then we also have um alumni who are very uh volunteer oriented. So more than half have reported volunteering in the last 12 months and 66% volunteer once per month and that's an estimated 5 million hours annually across all our alum. And then charitable giving 72% of our alumni report making a charitable donation than the last year and that's 120 million in estimated annual charitable giving from alumni in Canada. And then that's just the QR code if you would like to to learn more. And that's it. And I I uh had given Rook some postcards, I think, that are distributed as well. Thank you very much, Liz, and to the team that put this together. There's some really, really important and uh insightful information in in there. So, thanks for taking the time to do that. I don't know if council had any comments or questions they wanted to make. Um, councelor Wright, >> thank you through you, Mayor. Um, I am not a Laurier alumni. >> It's not too late. >> This is true. This is true. Um, but I do live um very close to the campus and a lot of my life is intertwined with uh the Laurier community. And one of the things that um you know over the years I've had great experience uh with Laurier volunteers. I used to run a walking school bus and I had um 11 kids and I had Laurier students at the front and Laurier students at the back of this huge line of kids and it was amazing. They were so dependable and the kids ended up with great relationships with them. Um the camps in the summer, the music academy, there's so many community benefits. Like I often say that without the conservatory at uh Laurier, you wouldn't have the plethora of music teachers in this community. like it's just there's so many knock-on effects um of of having universities postsecondary postsecary institutions in your community. Um the question that I want to ask is I you know um I know that there are a number of partnerships that we engage in between uh Laurier and the city of Wateroo and I wondered if you know how many projects you have ongoing. Um there's like I know the city hub has come in um pretty much every year of this term to work with uh our staff teams. Um I know that uh the BIA does a lot of work with uh Laurier group student groups and I've been part of some of those sessions but um it's something that I was looking for out of this report is to understand the the partnership aspect of uh the Laurier and um and city of water relationship. >> Thanks councelor Wright over to you Liz. >> Uh thank you for the question counselor. Um I can get that number. That was not in this presentation, but I know that uh we we do have data on that. So that is something that we could pull. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, that would be an interesting uh number. In in fact, one of the partnerships um there's a report later in our council meeting where there was input from the um the city hub, some of the students from city hub. Um so that's That's a very real time type of partnership that we had. Um, did you have a follow-up, councelor Ray? Nope. Okay. Did councelor Bassik. Thanks so much for your presentation. Um, like everyone around the horseshoe, we really value Laurier's uh, contribution to the community and the partnerships. Um, my question is more about um, some of the advocacy that um, and support for high school students coming into a a institution like Laurier um, might bring. So, like you said that you have about 9,000 students you estimate who probably wouldn't otherwise get um a university diploma and on one hand that's really exciting and really important because like you said it um you need university degree for better outcomes and that's true in this economy and this like neoliberal state we live in. Um that's just a fact. Um and at the same time that brings uh some some challenges along with it. So uh like I you know um post-secondary then becomes an economic driver uh and the pressures associated um with that uh both for the university but also for the students who come uh and uh so on on one hand you move away from universities as sort of these institutions that are um in the pursuit of knowledge um and truth and and and whatnot. And of course there are critiques of some of what that brings too. But um there is some merit in that um uh and beauty in that really uh as someone who really uh myself like didn't see myself as an academic before uh and now I'm uh slowly making my way through uh a PhD program. Um I've I've shifted in how I think of knowledge and academics uh and um going from someone who was like no you have to do work you don't think about work and seeing the merits in both and how the two intertwine particularly in this role and so you can lose some of that when the institution becomes an economic driver for our community um and then for high school students with whom I do my research um uh and community work uh they you know some of them talk about the pressures of of having to get a university degree just to survive. Um, and some of them, you know, may be well suited to university and some of them may be better suited to degrees to getting a college degree. Um, but, uh, may not see that as even an opportunity for them, uh, even though a program might be of more interest, particularly for those who come from lower income families, um, because they need the money to support their families. My research is with youth who live in poverty whose who need to help their families make ends meet. So there's that pressure associated with it and um they may be suited for it for sure. They may just have other interests that they can't pursue or maybe there's a different time in their life when they're older when university may be the place for them to to pursue to to participate in that pursuit of knowledge. And so I guess my question here is how do you help the students um at the university uh who go to university who may be part of those 9,000 or others who may be better suited or more interested in something else um find their way to that? And then um how do you leverage some of the research that's being done at your own institution and others about um how you know the deskkilling devaluation of um uh labor uh professional uh labor and also um this sort of need for a university degree in order to just um survive in life? How do you use the knowledge that your institution and other post-secondary institutions are are uh gathering to advocate for um pathways that might uh not be Laurier or might not be another post-secondary institution but that might actually be better suited to these students who I work with and who might have different aspirations and not need to feel the pressure of it and then you can really make universities institutions of um uh knowledge for for everyone at the point in time in their life that they're most going to take it in and they're not just going to be there to check. Sorry, I didn't mean for that to be a soap box speech. There's a lot but but just some of the things here I was like this is all good but also you know it's like a really um neoliberal take on the presentation which is what you have to do for us here at council but is not my particular interest. So there's a lot there, Liz. Um, so yeah, I mean there's a lot there. That's uh I think some of it was your question really about how how does Laurier work with students to help direct them into into the correct pathways or is or is it high school level or parents kind of directing them into the into the the the most appropriate path learning path? It's partially that, but then also ju I'm just curious about any one of your three commentaries on how do you Yes. Sorry, this wasn't just for you in your presentation. It was a great presentation. Um, great data. Um but also um how do you leverage what you're doing uh as a university as an institution and the knowledge that the professors at your institution are creating that I know that they're creating that saying um to to critique the system uh itself to say we're not this is good but also there are like some problems with it too. Well, thank you for your question and I'll let Matt or Deb uh jump in, but I can start. Um, in terms of uh, you know, we have a lot of um, programs where we and great partnerships with local high schools where we do bring uh, students on campus. Um, you may have seen some of them. We have the Black Brilliance Conference for example. So, we are very invested in access in that way, bringing people to the university campus to see what it's all about. So, and that can help them make their decisions. Um, um, uh, in terms of supporting students who do come from, um, you know, backgrounds where they're first generation students or maybe lower income, we have, uh, our student affairs team does an incredible job. I think Laurier is quite well known for the wraparound student supports we provide through things like our accessibility office. Uh, we have a lot of financial support in terms of burseries and scholarships. Um, you know, we we also help with food insecurity. Um, so just to ensure that socioeconomic background doesn't necessarily factor in, people can come and and we do have some of the supports if they if they want to get a university degree. Um the the social and economic the the intention of the social and economic impact report is really to to because I think people uh think a lot about the academic activity that goes on at the university but doesn't necessarily also think about those tangible outcomes of having a university in the community. So um we we do uh there there are a lot of opportunities for to f for faculty to disseminate their their research um in lots of different ways. I mentioned like symposiums that we have. Um we had the Scarboro Charter inter interstitutional forum um a few years ago where we brought black scholars from across Canada to come to to Waterl region in partnership with the University of Wateroo um and so many other things like our political science department has lots of great great things. We have great research on things like homelessness, you know, community um issues. So, um, I hope that answers some of your question. I don't know. Welcome to the podium, Matt. >> Thank you, mayor. Um, yeah, and if I'm, uh, interpreting the question, I I think you're alluding to maybe, um, you know, if there's a hierarchy being created by this economic development. And I I I think that um, the way that Laurier approaches it is is is really on a on a flat plane and and not creating the hierarchy to to build roads. you you you need people in the trades uh to actually build the roads as well as you need engineers and architects. And so I I don't um sometimes when advocating with the province, we the sector as a whole can fall into this trap of sort of um um speaking about postsecary in this competition between the colleges and universities and what's a better pathway for students. And we really see it less of a competition and more complimentary that if we're going to um face the challenges that uh our community and society faces, it's going to need a a a holistic community approach and and uh not it's going to need universities, colleges, higher education, trades, critical thinking um and those uh outside of that as well to address issues in in healthcare and infrastructure and education. Um, and so, uh, I I I don't I I don't know that we view it through that lens of of hierarchy that you were maybe alluding to. And we we aim to um really sort of flatten that that hierarchy and and work with all community partners um to solve some of these challenges uh around critical thinking and making sure that we prepare students um for a world uh not not just insular to the university on checking the box but but what's beyond through integrated learning in our co-op program. >> Thank you very much both of you. >> Yeah, thanks so much for uh responding to that. It gave me more information than I had for sure and also more questions which I like to have. So, thank you so much. >> Uh, C, thank you councelor Basset. Councelor Roach. >> Thank you, Liz, for your presentation. It was it was excellent and uh as a former um as a graduate of of Wilford Lauria, really proud to see how how Lauria has changed uh for the better, you know, since I graduated. I love the pictures, you know, the convocation. In my convocation, we walked across the floor of the Kitchener auditorium back uh 41 years ago and uh you know Peter's building was just built. They were put adding a couple floors to the library. So um Laurier has really uh you know turned into this worldass institution uh developing top talent right here in our backyard. Looking ahead at your strategic plan, um what can we do around this horseshoe to help you ensure that the graduates crossing the stage at compet convocation choose to stay here and build their careers and live in water, not so much southern Ontario, but water. Is there anything that we can do around this horseshoe that could uh could help that? >> Thank you, counselor, for the question. Um I'll I'll again I'll start and maybe uh my colleagues have some other uh things to add but I think a really important piece is um employment opportunities for the the young people who are graduating because I think what we we hear for the people who do end up leaving like to go to Toronto and the GTA it's because they they need to find work right so how do we um you know get them great local co-op and internship opportunities here and build those connections with local businesses and so that they stay or um what conditions can we make to to make entrepreneurial ventures more successful here or for people to want to stay and I think waterlue does a fantastic job already um so yeah that would be my answer I don't >> thank you thank you Liz >> thank you thank you uh counselor Um are there other com comments or questions? Seeing that I just wanted to add a question that um when I looked at your slide about work integrated learning um I think what I heard you say was that you're looking at creating more work integrated learning opportunities. So is that more co-ops or what does what would that look like? And I guess partly to pick up on councelor Roach's point about what more can kind of the city or the community do to support to to support uh you know the students looking for those they is is it co-op that when you're referring to work integrated learning or are there other opportunities? >> Yes. So there's um co-op there's community workplace partnerships there um which are shorter term. So a co-op would be for an academic term but a community workplace partnership is usually I think it's about 8 to 10 weeks. So to so shorter things that you might need a student for a project. Um there's also uh programs where they they can work uh within their class like with within their course on a on a specific project uh with different organizations. So um and that slide um what I was referring to uh I apologize because I was looking at the clock run down. I was trying to fine quickly um was the we do now uh if you see the graduates who who come out I think it's around 90% who have been offered a work integrated learning opportunity and so that number may have seemed lower but it was because we surveyed alumni across you know uh multiple generations who work integrated learning wasn't as much of a a thing that was offered you you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago. So, >> okay. No, that's helpful to know. Um, and I guess I would just also just I mean there's a a few we counselor Wright mentioned partnerships and and there's a few I think really important ones that pop into my mind like councelor Bodley is on the board um of for Laurier uh which is a which is a great connection. We've got the town and gown committees. We've got there's sort of no the city hub and things like that. Um, and I know we hire some co-op students. Um, and of course you hosted our my state of the city a couple of times in a row. So that was really great. Thanks very much for doing that again. Um, and then I know we've we've connected over some various advocacy opportunities as well. And just since President Mlachi's here, I'll just say again thanks to her for she she was the president of um the council is it the council of Ontario universities um and did a lot of the heavy lifting to work with the provincial government, excuse me, on you know just getting some more stabilizing the funding levels for um the post-secary institutions which are which was really really critical. Um, so just wanted to publicly thank her for that work and and I've said on many many occasions since the you know the tariff and trade stuff has has has been thrust upon us and certainly when we were advocating in support of you know more post-secondary funding um said to the premier and the minister of uh training colleges and universities or colleges and universities many times like you know Ontario's only going to get through this or is only going to get through this if we have good strong graduates, right? Like this is we can't starve our post-secondary system when we need them the most in terms of being able to you know educate people who are going to start businesses like the incredible numbers that you listed here or and employ people or you know this this is the way and train people primarily this is the way that we're going to respond to the tariff and trade pressures that we're under. Um, so just wanted to again say thank you to to Laurier for for all that they've been doing since 1911. It's really incredible. You mentioned councelor Roach the time that you were there. But it's it started as a one building and what is that 113 years ago or so? one building at the at the corner up there and look what the impact and how it's grown and changed and and and I also always say the way that the universities go is the way that the city itself like in terms of the community go. So having strong vibrant um anchor institutions like Laurier and having you in our community for over a hundred years has really helped develop us as a us as a city and our you know the what we're able to offer residents and you know the type of graduates we're able to hire etc. So it's it's been a really positive long-standing um relationship and we look forward to a hundred more. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much again for for sharing this information. We'll have to dig into the report. I know you just hit the highlights today, but it is good to see this um you know quantified because it again just reinforces how important the the the input and the outputs from university and the graduates and and the faculty are. So thanks very much uh again to Liz, President Mcclache and Matthew for uh for joining us today. Okay. So, um, our next presentation is on our citizen relationship management demonstration. And this is, oh, there she is, Leslie Heptitch, our new executive officer to the CEO. Welcome, Leslie, in your new role. And, um, my understanding is you're going to walk us through a demonstration of this. So >> yes, >> do you want you want to do a presentation and then as you're demoing it, we'll just take questions at the end or as you're going through. >> Sure. I have um Danielle, Amos, and Megan Eie here with me as well. And they've been an instrumental part in helping us um develop the CRM and launch it. So um what we're thinking for today is I'll just provide a bit of a brief overview. We're going to go through some of the reports and dashboards that have been set up. Um, from there, I'll do a demonstration of the portal um, and how that flows into the citizen relationship management tool. And then we'll do a call in and you guys can see how that works. So, we're just going to get set up here. We just have to set the computer up. I need your help. So, while that comes up, sorry, I'm going to switch spots. While we're bringing that up, um the citizen relationship management portal launched on April 16th with the online portal and service requests set up through Salesforce for mainly city utilities, some transportation services and corporate service or sorry um corporate security service requests have also been created for the elected officials and civil civil ceremonies that those have been configured and we are working with legislative services to launch these later this summer. As part of phase 2, we are also be expanding into parks, forestry, transportation, and economic development. The portal also includes integrations with the telephone system, manerys for online payments, Microsoft bookings, and Maximo for our work management software. Here you see some of our the case dashboard that is used for reporting for staff. So we have different case views that can be created. So for the case by department, it shows which departments um you it's a live integration. So it can show which um divisions have come in for the cases. There's also case by status to show what is closed um and open case by origin. So, so far since the portal launched without any um external communication yet, we've already seen 36% of the cases coming through the portal in the last month. Um followed by telephone and in person and then going to show you mind. So, that just goes to show the case origin and then case by service type which can be broken out. There's also a reporting feature on a map. Um, so this can be shown through cases by their status for what is closed, open, or in progress, as well as time frames that can be used. I'm now going to walk you through the portal. So, this is our online service portal. Um, um, citizens can find it through using the waterlue.ca, CA going to the services on the Waterlue website and then it'll launch to this portal if they wish to submit an online request. I'm going to set one up for water on off. So if this is an urgent after hours, if I hit if it's um urgent and I hit yes, it'll advise me that I need to call in for that because nobody is monitoring the portal after hours. But if I say no to go through the request if it's in future So this um will allow me to choose the DMS booking calendars for our field operations staff and then confirm booking. And then at the end I am going to be provided as well with a case reference number if I need to follow up. So there's my case reference number. Thanks very much for for this. Um my councelor Hanmer, we'll start with you. Thank you very much and thank you for the demonstration. It it looks pretty slick that it uh integrates a lot of our systems which is great. Um a little of a minor point and maybe it's because my eyes are getting old. Uh on when you were on the website it was really hard to see. Um, so and it and I was looking to see if there were any of the icons that people could enlarge the the font. So you may I may have just missed it, but just check it. The rest of it was fine. It was just that website was that was a little tricky. How long have you been So I do have a question though. How long have you been testing it and what's been the reaction so far? both from the public that have used it and I saw you had a few people that have come in uh as well as staff >> and sorry before you answer that I because I was curious one of you said that there's 36% of new cases that have come in before it's even been publicized like what's that in terms of just a number >> um Danielle do you mind just pulling up that just going back to that So since April um it looks like so it's these purple boxes down here just shows the weekly breakdown. So 20 30 40 my math's not great 50 probably about I would say 70 in the last month on average. Well, we do have the after hours answering service. So, there is still the capacity for people to call in after hours and report those things by phone. Um, it does have that disclaimer as she showed on the website as well where it tells them you can log the request, but it won't be monitored. So, sort of as that disclaimer. Um, but definitely I think in the future it would be ideal to be able to have that accessibility for people to log it online after hours as well. >> Thank you. Thank you, councelor Hanmer. Um I just just to when if if someone called in with the water main break though that that does get just wanted to clarify that does get direct immediate assistance. So um just for people listening uh councelor Ro >> thank you through you chair. Thank you for that demonstration. It uh really is um I think very helpful and um just streamlining um as we move forward. Just a quick question about process because you had mentioned when um people put in um a request online that sometimes you reply via email like I'm assuming they get a standard we received and we will contact you if necessary um and so is that the extent of it um for someone that's um requesting service um or is there anything different? >> Yes. So, we plan to continue to evolve these services as well. Um, right now there is that standard email that says, "We've received your request and staff have been dealing with it or will be dealing with it in so many words." Um, but as we continue to progress and it becomes more integrated with our work management system down the road, um, it'll provide more of a status update to the resident as well. Some of these requests right now are only city utility based. So, a lot of times the work um is happening right in front of their house so they'll know when the work has been complete. But as we continue to roll out to transportation and parks um we'll be able to provide those updates if needed email templates so when they the work is done staff can then close the request in Maximo or whatever work management system we'll be using and that'll transfer back to the CRM and notify the resident as well. >> Thank you. It was the status update piece. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Wright. >> Thank you through you, Mayor. Um, so Mary Lou asked one of my questions. The second one really has to do with um the outside hours um like the the the weekend example. So, um I'll give you an example of a a recent experience where um if my neighbors have any issues with um a problem that they're reporting, they just call me. Um but then it became an issue of trying to figure out how to help them. And once I uh try to help them, I try to fix the problem for the future. And so, you know, one of the questions that came up was how are um how are the the um uh the phones that are being uh operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Um are those people located uh in the city? like is it is it a calling services actually situated in the water region and secondly um when there is a problem that is sort of a hybrid issue where it might originate in um a bylaw complaint but it's actually spilled into one of the other areas um it can be difficult to kind of triage that in the spot or even explain what it is that you need help with and so it's like one of those things where sometimes the people that the things that people are calling about are not easily ly communicated is what I'm getting at. U and so I'm just wondering how our calling service deals with that then when they're triaging and because it's something that needs immediate response. >> Right. So to answer your first part about the region, um all of our calls go through a call agency called Answer Plus and they're located in Hamilton um as a call center. So they take all of those um but they work very closely with us for our scripting. Um and when people call in they call they get the city of Waterlue number and then there's it's just a soft transfer to them as the operator to answer for that. Um and then they follow up with our operations staff. Um so it would be the same if you were calling during the day. You would have the same experience um for those emergency services. If it's a service that is not an emergency, um that person who's ever calling in is asked to call back during regular business hours. Um so that's for all the services in the city. Um and then in terms of your second question, um as you know, the city of Waterl is a decentralized customer service. Um, we do have a knowledge base though that is built out for staff that um, frontline staff can start to use that if they do receive one of those calls that necessarily maybe don't fall under their department, they could find um, the basic information to answer those questions and then um, connect them with the appropriate person um, or let them know how that um, service request is going to be handled or dealt with and the steps it might have to go through if it goes through multiple divisions. Thanks for that. Um, it it was clear that in the end we we were able to solve the problem collectively, but it was actually a police officer who ended up showing up to respond to our call, which I thought was curious. >> Yeah. So, I might I might have a further conversation about that one. Thanks. No worries. >> Thanks, Council Wright. Are there other questions from council? Just a couple from me. I'm I'm curious about I assume there's some kind of escalation like if uh uh I know staff are busy and you know respond as quickly as they can but how does it work like if you email or call in and there's a case created but then you know no action has been taken is there an automatic way that this escalates I don't know in two days or in five days to a supervisor or how does that what does that look like? >> Yes. So, we did develop the customer service standards policy um I think it was last year that um staff are asked to respond within two business days. Um if it's a request that comes in and we address it and then send it to a division and if it hasn't been followed up on um and there's a call that comes in again, we'll and the CRM will help with this as well, but we'll try to follow up with staff to see the status of it. maybe they've went out and checked it and it seems okay or there's some further investigation that has to be done. So, we try to um help with that and if things aren't like then sometimes it might have to be escalated to a supervisor or a manager but it's on a case-byase basis. >> Oops, sorry. Thank you. So, there is some kind of feedback loop as needed for the resident so they know something's happened. Okay. Um and then yeah, and if it's not happening, it gets escalated. Um, and then so there's going to be an app version that people can download. Is that what you were saying? Like when they can we could they can log in from their phone like how does that work? Or you just log in from your phone to the website? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so kind of similar to councelor Wright's question about, you know, how do you know who to report things to? How does it handle? Like we know we have a two-tiered municipal structure and lots of people who've lived here their entire life don't you know don't don't know or don't remember that the region does waste management and we do fire and you know they do transit and etc etc. So how does it respond to questions that come in because we get a lot of them that are that's actually a regional uh you need a regional um contact for that. How does that work? >> Yes. So waste management is a prime example this last few months. We've got a lot of waste inquiries and um Megan can probably speak better to this, but um we just advise the caller or if they're emailing in or whatever that might be that it is a regional program and then we usually do a soft transfer. So we'll transfer them through the region and just um say like if for future if you need to if this is a regional issue then here's the number if you need to follow up with them. >> Okay. Um, so then will some of the communications of this include like here's what we do, here's what here's what the city does, here's what the region does to try and again help and I know we've been trying to do this for probably for 50 years since we became two-tier, but like is that going to be part of the of the um the communications with it? >> I can work with Carrie on that. >> Thank you for the question, mayor. every opportunity we have to promote our services and differentiate them from the region services we'll take advantage of. So yes, we'll be sure to uh emphasize that. >> Okay. Thank you. And just I'm curious um like when people are calling in, what number do they typically use or do we are we because I I feel like I remember when Valencia did their report a couple years ago that maybe the number was there was 40 different numbers to call into. Are we still at 40 or like where are what are what are how are we dealing with the amount of numbers people can contact us through? >> Yes. Um right now we have not addressed the number of numbers. Um I think depending on the service they're looking for, it'll say on the website which number they would have to call. Um but the CRM will help work towards um bringing down that the number of phone numbers out there because as we look to work towards a more centralized model and um the CRM will help with that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and then I'm curious like in the office of the mayor and council um is this is already you're starting to roll this out to our staff in the office of the mayor and council. Is that right? Okay. And so that it's a similar process that what you've just described in terms of like >> some like the the issue will be forwarded on and escalated as needed or where is council then brought into the loop on that? >> Yes. So um we've started to build out some of the services for elected officials. Um so they'll have a tile which we had showed on the portal on the website a similar tile where they can make um if they have any like cere like events or ceremony requests pin requests like anything that might come in that the elected officials office um handles right now um and it'll go through the same intake well it'll will come in through Salesforce to staff and then um it'll be implemented through that the same way. >> Okay, great. Um, and so that is starting to be rolled out in our office. Okay. All right. Well, I look forward to to that because I I was I think I was sharing with you before. Um I've worked at when I was at the city of Kitchener as a staffer, they had a system like this and it was really really helpful because you could you could pull reports like based on how many calls per ward, what are the issues like it really can, you know, give you a really good insight into into what's happening on a very localized level as well as across the whole across the whole uh city and corporation. Yep. >> Yes. >> I don't know if anyone had any other comments or questions. Okay. Well, thanks very much for your work on this. I know customer service and and that was a was a big big uh a big issue that certainly I think some of us heard a lot about when we were campaigning in 2022. So, really appreciate the work. I know there's more that needs to be done in terms of like really rolling this out to the entire corporation, but this uh >> um this is a great start and uh yeah, we'll look forward to doing what we can as council and through our office to encourage people because we get a lot of we obviously that's what we're there for. We get a lot of uh input from residents. Um so we will be I think very very much looking forward to utilizing this u to the best of our ability. So thanks very much uh for your work on this. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And congratulations on starting your new role as well. Okay. So we are we are um done with those two presentations. So council I will um go to the consent agenda. Are there any is there anything that anyone wanted to pull from consent? Okay. So looking for someone to councelor um councelor Freeman. Moved by councelor Freeman. seconded by councelor Roach um to move the consent agenda. All in favor? That is carried. Thank you. Okay. So, um so now we will move to the update from um our deputy clerk Natalyia Shab Shabelle and Samantha Bleti on the advisory committee of council review and update. Welcome, Natalya. Oh, I guess Sam's not here. Okay, thanks very much. Over to you. >> Sam is unfortunately dealing with a municipal issue in the city of G. So, um I'll be here alone tonight, um this afternoon. Okay. Uh good afternoon, uh mayor, members of council, and everyone present. I'm really pleased to report to you on um some of the outcomes of the committee review um that we came up with um to date. Uh the goal of this presentation is to provide the overview of the committee review to date. Uh we will highlight key findings uh from the review and engagement process and outline next steps. Um as council remember the com the uh CD maintains uh five advisory committees uh for quasa judicial or statutory committees and three inter agency committees um as well as two advisory to staff committees. All this um are covered by the uh committee policy. These committees continue to play an important role in the city governance. um they provide specialized expertise, support public participation and help the city meet legislated uh obligations. Uh the previous review comprehensive review was conducted in 2015 2016 with recommendations brought to council in 2016. At that time council approved several significant changes to the committee governance model. They uh included disbanding disband disbanding sorry of several committees uh that completed their mandates at the time uh consolidating several quasi judicial functions under the appeals tribunal umbrella and updating the committee policy and comm and some committee terms of reference. Uh the previous review also identified growing pressures associated with traditional committee structures and changing public expectations around civic engagement. Um since 2022, so this the beginning of this term of council, several changes were introduced to modernize committee administration and improve accessibility of this model. Uh this included uh more inclusive and plain language recruitment practices, expanded outreach through community and post-secary uh channels, enhanced on on boarding and orientation resources, and the creation of the meeting assistant fund to help reduce participation barriers, which was very well welcomed by uh community committee members. Council has also approved several structural changes over the past few years. This included transitioning some committees to a more flexible engagement model and expanding the use of uh independent hearing officer model um instead of several quasi judicial committees. Um this review involved significant engagement with a broad range of participants. staff work collaboratively with the uh ready team, strategic initiatives, corporate communications, and WLU uh faculty and students. Engagement included surveys, interviews, focus groups, municipal scans, interviews of comparator, municipalities, materials available in um the public access. Overall, more than 300 responses were collected across various engagement channels. uh and I would like to take this opportunity and expand on the earlier delegation uh on the impact of our postsecary on the city. So I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Laura Pin, assistant professor at Laurier University, Dr. Rahab Abdu, associate professor of um the same university as well as Laura Adams uh the alumni of Laurier who was a student at the time and helped us process the data. Uh one of the strongest themes that emerged uh was that residents continue to value public participation and want opportunities to contribute to city's decision making and return um to the and contribute to the community. Committee members, staff and community participants consistently recognize the important role committee committees play in supporting community building, economic development and other strategic priorities. At the same time, the review also identified several recurring challenges in the advisory committee model and opportunities for improvement. Um, many participants indicated that traditional committee structures can create barriers to participation, naming time commitments, formal meeting procedures, childcare responsibilities, transportation, and meeting schedules as barriers. Some respondents also noted that committees can feel difficult to access for residents who are unfamiliar with municipal processes and who have traditionally not participated in civic process in civic spaces. Another key theme was that many residents prefer more flexible and project-based engagement opportunities instead of long-term committee uh commitments. Um, just to remind council, we have two ter two-year uh appointments for most advisory two-year term appointments for most advisory committees and four-year long appointments for uh our quasi judicial committees. Uh this reflects on an uh the an emerging trend across uh Ontario municipalities. Local governments are increasingly uh complementing traditional committee structures with focus groups, expert panels, online engagement, pop-up consultations, and pro uh project specific working groups. Uh the review also highlighted ongoing administrative and workload pressures associated with comedia administration. Similar information was received from uh municipalities that we surveyed. Uh staff leison reported spending considerate time on agenda preparation minutes scheduling onboarding meeting coordination uh on top of their job uh responsibilities. Recruitment and retention challenges also continue across several committees particularly where specialized expertise is required or statutory composition requirement are involved. Importantly, um the findings uh do not suggest that advisory committees no longer provide value. In many areas, committees continue to provide meaningful expertise, continuity, and ongoing public input. However, the review suggests that committees are no longer the only option of public engagement for policy project type work. There are more flexible engagement approaches that better reflect current community expectations and participation preferences. uh based on the public on on the findings to date, staff are preparing a series of recommendations that will be brought forward to council in June. These recommendations are expected to include updates to the committee policy and certain committee terms of reference. uh clarification of of eligibility and uh appointment provisions, expanded use of expert panels or advisory to staff models, continued targeted and inclusive recruitment efforts, mandatory on boarding and um requirements and expanded hybrid participation opportunities. Staff will also recommend that honoraria be uh provided by default unless declined by members. This would simplify administrative process and improve consistency. Um, as part of this work, staff are also exploring the use of expert panels for specific initiatives and projects where targeted subject matter expertise uh may be more efficient than uh maintaining a committee structure. Um this approach reflects uh practices that are increasingly being used across Ontario municipalities and is in uh intended to support more focused, responsive and accessible engagement opportunities. To conclude, I would like to mention that through multiple engagement channel, we heard that uh residents value uh public engagement, civic engagement. It is an important part of municipal governance. Uh at the same time, public participation methods continue to ev involve and as you know the city has increasingly been uh adopting broader range of engagement approaches um through um popup consultations, focus groups, expert panels and so on. Uh the intent of the changes that the proposed changes that will be brought to your attention later is not to reduce engagement but rather to broaden opportunities for participation, improve accessibility to ensure engagement approaches remain effective, sustainable and aligned with community expectations. Um thank you very much for your attention and I'm happy to take any questions that council may have. Thank you very much, Natalya. I appreciate the report and the uh presentation. Uh council, other questions? Councelor Hanmer, Council Wright had her hand up first. >> Okay. I was >> Okay. Thank you, Natalia. Thank you very much for the for the presentation. Lots of information that you've pulled pulled together. And I think uh the the key is that we want to make sure that we're enabling engagement in the best way possible going forward. One thing that kind of struck me as I was reading through the materials there aren't any statistics there and so wondering if in the next report when you do the final even if it's in an appendex just of the things that you're making sense so we've got some backing of of uh the recommendations that are coming coming forward and but I was encouraged though by the numbers of people you said participated so that's great but if you could include that that would be wonderful thank you >> thank you councelor Hanmer councelor rightight thank you I just I have two questions for you, mayor. I'm I'm wondering about um the term expert panel and how it's used in uh section 7.2. And I the reason why I raised this concern is that there are a lot of different kinds of expertise and they are validated in different ways. Um and uh in this particular context, expert panel seemed to me like when when you need deep technical expertise, you know, when the federal government puts together an expert panel on a particular topic, it's usually because they're looking for deep technical expertise. Um but in the way that we use it in section 7.2, we're talking about advising potentially the strategic plan process. And I wondered if that was actually what we're inferring here or whether what we really want is something closer to a citizen reference panel or something that is more demographically representative or reflective of our our community. >> Uh thank you councelor right this is a great questions we did have conversations with some of staff leaison about the appropriateness of this terminology. So this is just a um generic term that is used in one of the public engagement methodologies. So obviously we're going to come up with uh a more like you said a more inclusive term. So um there are multiple options like the city of Hamilton for example um came up with a liaison citizen liaison group something like that. So we will have these consultations before this ter this term is adopted in the policy formally. >> Okay, that's helpful. I just wanted to make sure we weren't locked into um sort of the terminology around uh expert panel. And then the other question I have is I I know um staff have been doing a fair amount of AP2 training which supports stakeholder engagement and I wondered whether the staff leaison that support the committees themselves whether they have received IAP2 training or whether they will in this coming term. >> Uh through you uh mayor some of leaison staff I'm aware I was in sessions with them. I can poll as well uh and see whether there are opportunities for them to receive training going forward. But uh like I said, I've been in sessions with quite a few of those. Okay. Thanks. that it would just be interesting to know. It's uh very valuable like anytime you have a public engaging role but you're used to maybe working within your staff teams um being able to flip those hats and uh perspectives uh can be challenging and so just wanted to to note that it would be helpful for them to have that training. >> Thank you councelor Wright. Um are there other comments or questions from council? Councelor Ro, >> thank you through you, Chair. Just one um comment. Thank you for the report. Um it was encouraging to me to see that as we evolve in how we do things that you know broadening out how we do consultation is so important and offering different opportunities so that we get those voices that we may not necessarily um hear from enough that should be included. So thank you. >> Thank thank you councelor Row. Um, other comments or questions for Natalyia? No. Um, I'll just um I'll just say, you know, we we know we just had um volunteer appreciation month in in April or week, I guess it was. And uh you know we have a tremendous amount of local people who volunteer for the city in a number of different varieties whether it's you know helping on a short term at one of our events like with um you know manage answering questions uh at a booth at you know something that the city's organized or whether it's sitting on committees and and uh the the audit committee was noted in here and I think Alan Chambers has served on that committee for 42 years 40. No, not that. Okay. I'm pretty sure I signed a certificate. Anyway, that's it's an incredible amount of years, but yeah, we have a we have a a great deal of uh people who've who've provided a a great deal of uh support to the city um in a number of capacities over the year. And you know, this isn't a a criticism of anyway. This is like really recognizing what they've done and what they bring to the table and just really looking at how can we continue to modernize the the way we deliver service, the way we consult for programs and changes etc. So, thank you very much for this uh for this information. Um so, seeing no further questions or comments, um there's uh a recommendation here that council receive the report. So, we'll moved by councelor Row, seconded by councelor Hanmer. All in favor? That is carried. So, thank you very much for your work on this uh and uh and through to Sam as well. So, um council, that brings us to um our final report, which is Parkland Facility Acquisition, Laurel Creek Nature Center. Um and we have a we have um Greg Milkeno, treasurer of the Grand River Environmental Network, who has asked requested to be a delegate. Um so we will start with um you're welcome to the welcome to the podium, Greg. We'll start with your delegation. >> Don't worry about something over my name. I have a list of 92 misspellings and misprononunciations and I treasure it. >> Okay. Well, maybe say it for me or say it for us. Micheleno. >> Yeah, it's Micheleno. Micheleno and the original is Maileno which is >> Okay. Well, you're welcome. So you have five minutes. Um but uh um over to you. >> Uh the community of people interested in nature, outdoor educa and environmental education, uh conservation are thrilled to hear that the city of Wateroo will be purchasing uh the Laurel Creek lands. uh it has a fine history of serving needs of of conservation and preservation as well a very strong programs in education. And I was once taken by one of the the educators there to see exactly what the small kids would be seeing in the in the forest and apparently as many as 15,000 students would pass through there each year. So it's time that uh this land uh had a chance to fulfill its destiny as much as possible both socially as well as in as a natural system. The conservation authorities of Ontario were created in the 1930s. It was an administrative bit of brilliance. They've evolved. They've uh the Grand River Conservation Authority in 2001 received the most prestigious international river basin uh management prize. Uh also another one did more recently but unfortunately under the present provincial governments they have been many of their activities have been suspended. uh there's been the deterioration in in their actions and the in morale and I think that what you're doing is very good. I also like to commend the city of Waterlue for winning the Ontario Municipal Board fight taken on by the the owner of the developer who owned the property on the immediate northern fringe and uh is a spectacular victory for the city. It cost you a great deal of money, but it has now provided uh greater security of the Laurel Creek lands as a sanctuary of of nature and of learning. Uh, one one matter that seems to be a problem, and this is from talking to some of the educators there, is that the Waterlue Public Board of Education no longer holds any any educational programs there, just the uh the Catholic schools. And I think that needs to be addressed. Um, what else is it? Yes. And I I know you've gotten some written messages. One is from Fraser Gibson. He's retired. Uh, he has had a career of love and devotion for Laurel Creek and for the environmental education there. and I urge you to read it and he'll provide some explanation of that problem with faced by the uh public school board uh not presently using uh the facilities. So um very grateful. It's a happy day and I thank you for uh the investments and the care and the uh good investigations you've made to further this. >> Thank you very much. Uh thank you very much, Greg. I appreciate you sharing those kind remarks and for the volunteer work you do with the Grand River um uh environmental network. Are there any comment or questions for the delegate? Okay, seeing none, thanks very much for making time to come in today. So, council, um there is a staff report before us. There's no presentation, so I'll just open it up to questions if people have them. We have our director of parks, cemeteries, and forestry. Uh councelor Ro, go ahead. I just had to pull up my questions. Thank you through you, chair. Yes. I just wondered, Robin, um, if you can just expand a little bit on the accessibility audit and sort of what, um, major accessibility upgrades may be required over time or sort of where that's looking right now. >> Certainly, thank you for the question through you, chair, to to councelor Rose. So, we uh, we knew accessibility was going to be a major concern with this property. uh it does have a facility on the property that is aging but in fairly good condition. We brought in a a third-party uh accessibility audit firm. So, it was the Rick Hansen Foundation. The Rick Hansen Foundation kind of goes above and beyond um the Ontario building code and and they look at other elements other than the built infrastructure. So, they did a a fairly thorough investigation of the property, produced a really good document. There's a number of items that they focus on. Um so there's there's 12 there's 12 areas that they focus on in their audit. Um one of them being associated with residential um inhabitant and obviously this doesn't have that. So they looked at 11 of uh of their key areas that they focus on. Um we got the report back and and went through it. Um in order to get Rick Hansen accreditation, you need a 60% score. And I know that seems low, but again, they go above and beyond the Ontario building code. Um, the property as is without any adjustments or or modifications got a 59% score rating, which I actually thought was was a little bit higher than I thought it was going to be. Um, within the report, there's some really low hanging fruit. And then there's some other, you know, items that that involve some major some more um financial um investment for accessibility. So, some of the low hanging fruits that we looked at was uh there is an accessible bathroom on the ground floor. We're looking at making that to a a fully compliant universal washroom. Um there's there's no accessible parking on the site, which just really means there's not a site that's demarked as accessible with proper signage and and paint markings. Um we'll look at the pedestrian route to the building. So currently, I think it's uh like some aging concrete or it might even be pavers. So we'd be looking at some improvements there. Widening of interior door openings, replacement of door hardware, uh improving and replacing washroom hardware. um enhancement of signage and wayfinding in the building and on the site. And then generally our position is just to limit access to the to the basement floor to storage and mechanical. So at at at this time we'll be looking at the main floor for those accessibility improvements. Um the basement really at in its current state doesn't lend itself well to you know any type of future programming. It's it's kind of broken up into a bunch of mechanical rooms so that we Yeah, I think the building can operate quite nicely with improvements to the main floor. >> Thank you. And then just a follow-up question about um timeline or is there u I know there's still movement going forward, but I'm just wondering if you have any ideas about what the timeline for those upgrades could look like. >> Sure. Through the mayor to yourself, council row. Um, so yeah, you're correct. We are in negotiations still with the the GRCA in terms of what the what the lease will look like. So, as you know, there's a a 5-year lease back to the GRCA. So, they they will be the operators of the nature center for the for the up to the next 5 years. Um, I think that, you know, after so GRCA's board met on Friday and and approved this to move forward to our council. So, you know, should council decide to approve this today, I think negoti like the I shouldn't say negotiations cuz we've settled on the terms now we're just working through some of the finer details. Um I anticipate that that process should happen relatively quickly. They have a um through the new structuring of the conservation area like what the province has has kind of put the CAS through um there's a 90day kind of like holding period that has to happen. So that's that's 3 months out. So, you know, say we're another month to get to an agreement, you know, we're probably four months out before we take possession of the property. Um, and then we'll work closely with the So then that puts us into September, which is their start of their learning season. Um, so we'll likely miss kind of what I would deem the ideal construction scenario where where classes aren't in session at the at the um nature center, but you know, working with um facilities, we'll we'll come up with a schedule. And, you know, if we can do some of these accessibility upgrades this fall, that would be ideal. There is money as noted in this report. There's 200,000 in capital um dedicated to to this project. Um, and we'll work to make that happen. based on weather and schedule and you know it does get it does get busy in there with classes. So I think we would try to you know avoid that type of conflict. But we have the winter break, we have the um the March break and then you know depending on on scheduling we could we could probably get in there and do some of those uh address the low hanging fruit. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Councelor Row, are there other comments or questions for staff on this? Uh, councelor Roach. >> Thanks, Robin. Um, we're leasing this facility back to the GRCA for a dollar a year while assuming $100,000 annually in operating costs and taking on capital repairs. What specific or new public access or programs that'll benefit Waterlue residents? Uh, what will we receive during this 5-year transition? Are we simply, you know, that's half a million dollars or are we simply subsidizing GRCA for the uh existing operations until the lease ends? >> Thank you for the question through you, Chair to Councelor Roach. So I there's there's two two parts to um to your question two answers to your question I guess I'll say is you'll notice is noted in the report is that the valuation for the property is for for the property and and the upgrades to the property itself. um the the building was valued in an appraisal report and this was a negotiation the the 5-year lease back was a negotiation for the value of the building. So essentially the city of Waterloo is only paying for the value of the land and the land upgrades and not the valuation of the building and the valuation of the building is is being was negotiated with this five-year half a million term. Um also The second part to or this second part to your question is, you know, how will the the residents of of Waterlue benefit over the next five years? I think one is that, you know, there's a commit a $200,000 commitment here to accessibility upgrades to the building and and so, you know, the school board that uses the building and has access to the building will benefit from those accessibility upgrades. Um, but there's also we've also negotiated the use of the land. And so in the three-year budget, you'll remember that there was uh an indigenous gathering space that was identified as a capital budget. I think it's like around 44 427,000 for the for the um implementation of an indigenous gathering space. So we'll be able to move forward within the next 5 years on that. So we'll start uh with engagement in in the first year working with Brian and and the ready team. uh and we'll be developing an engagement strategy on on how to properly engage for an indigenous gathering space. Once we've gone through that um that community engagement, we can start, you know, the construction and implementation of that on on a section of the property with the hopes that that can be integrated into the school curriculum as well. Brian's really interested in carrying that indigenous gathering space into the school curriculum as as long as they're on the property with the hopes that that model can carry forward after the five years. >> Thank you so much for your response. >> Thank you very much uh councelor Roach uh councelor uh Bodley. >> Oh okay councelor right then I just have a quick uh question of clarity through you mayor. Um, am I correct in assuming that any WRDSB access is just negotiated directly with um the Grand River Conservation Authority? >> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Wright. Um, if there's no other questions, um, I'll I'll go to Councelor Ble. >> Oh, thank you for that. Uh, Mayor McCabe, I I'm happy to to move this uh given that it is in my wards. Uh I know that uh a few years ago or a couple years ago when the province announced that the conservation authorities in the province needed to uh quote divest themselves of anything that doesn't have a that's a non-conservation mandate uh whatever that means necessarily to them. Uh there was significant uh con community concern uh in war and broadly in the city of Waterl about what was going to happen to the uh to the Laurel Creek Nature Center and the lands uh here. I I know this while this uh site is in Ward 2, it is highly used by all residents of of the city of Waterlue and lots of uh folks and including some who have emailed us over the past couple of days uh will remind us of uh some of their times being spent at the Laurel Creek Nature Center. Um but it's also substantially used by by residents for walking trails and to to wander through that uh that area as a public uh as a public space. So, uh, I'm, uh, happy that we're we've been able to come forward with this and maintain the current use over the over the short, uh, over the short term, and I'm excited about possible future uses that we we might see here at the city of Waterloo and look forward to to watching that process, uh, from afar. But, uh, truthfully here, what we're talking about is the stewardship of of what our environmentally sensitive, uh, lands. And uh I have been fortunate in uh in Ward 2 whether it whether it's these types of lands whether it's development uh driven or whether it's related to the ESPA um donations that have come to the city of Wateroo I've uh had the privilege to say this uh not uh more than a handful of times over my eight years here on council uh that true stewardship of environmental uh environmental lands necessitates public ownership and these These lands were in public hands and I am really pleased to see this direction that ensures that these really important environmentally sensitive lands are kept uh in public hands uh for as long as we can. Uh so happy with the report. Appreciate all the work that's been been done by staff and uh pleased to move it. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Bodley. Um and thanks for moving that. Is there a seconder? Seconded by councelor Row then. Um oh sorry did you have comments? Okay. I think everyone wants to second it because I think it's safe to say um echoing what councelor Bodley's comments that uh we really are really pleased with the direction and we're glad and really appreciate Rob and the work that you've done over the past 18 months to negotiate uh back and forth with the with the Grand River Conservation Authority because as councelor Bodley said, I certainly echo that that um public ownership of these lands and public protection is is really critically important. Um and you know as well I appreciate the the work that um our indigenous adviser Brian Hill has done on this because we are also I think really interested and excited to work with through him with uh first nations on you know the the idea of like um you know an education um opportunities out there sacred space etc. like we we know we've been looking for a while to not we the for Brian and with his leadership that's been working with local first nation communities to find a to find an appropriate appropriate space. So really pleased that this is going to be able to to facilitate that and just wanted to thank you again Brian as well as Robin for the for the work that you're doing and you know there'll be some important consultations coming up on on all of that. So really pleased um that this is the direction we're going in and uh with that I'll just say uh we'll call the vote. All in favor that is unanimous. Thank you very much. I think we all have great memories of Laurel Creek taking our kids there for birthday parties and school trips and walks etc. So happy that this will remain uh going forward. Thanks very much council um for supporting this direction. And it's really, you know, the stewardship of these lands are really, really critical for what we're doing. Okay. So, moving on to consideration of notice of motion. There are none. There are no notices of motion. There's no communications and correspondence. There's no unfinished business. Um, questions, council, are there any questions? There are none. Okay. New business. Um there is a we need a there's a a regional all councsil meeting that's coming up on June 12th at 2 o'clock. It will be at at the city of Cambridge hosting at this time. Um so I need a mover and a seconder for that. Um c moved by councelor Row, seconded by councelor Hammer. All in favor? That is carried. Um enactment of the bylaws. >> Oh, I don't have that on here. Oh, other new business. I that's missing off my agenda. Okay, other new business. Yes, councelor Vasik. >> Uh, thanks for you, Mayor. Uh, yesterday, yes, yesterday I went to the launch of Kwag's Kitchener Waterlue Art Gallery's Garden of Resilience. They had a few events this weekend, but the launch was yesterday at 11:00. They announced their two gardeners in residence. Uh, and they have this summer three talks that they're giving, rain or shine. And you can see the garden of resilience uh right outside on queen and whatever that oh I guess Margaret >> um uh in those boxes in the front. And a really neat part of this um this initiative is that the gardeners and residents who were selected are kind of asking or suggesting to do an exchange. So when you um come out to one of their talks to connect with them or sign up online for them to come to your garden to do a visit. Now, I'm not sure how wide it goes. It's certainly in the area of KWAG. Um, their talks aren't open only to the people in the area of KWAG. Um, and maybe they'll go further. I'm just not clear on that yet. But um I thought it was a really neat uh reciprocal way to uh talk about public lands and and uh private lands and the gardening that we do and how that um how that gets passed down through generations which is a source of of their um their interest their own family gardens in their grandparents uh homes both here uh in Canada and in India for one of the gardeners and residents. So certainly worth checking out. Thank you for sharing that information. Councelor Vasic, other business by anyone else. Okay, seeing none, I I I just want to go back to the the Laurel Creek Nature Reserve to just say thank you to everyone who sent their letters in. We read them, we saw them. I just I meant to mention that previously, but thank you for for all of that uh correspondence that we received. Okay, if there's no other business than enactment of bylaws, moved by councelor Freeman, seconded by councelor Row. All in favor? That is carried. Adjournment moved by councelor Freeman, seconded by councelor Vasik. All in favor, that is carried. Thank you everyone. Have a great rest of the day.